Document turn over devices are well known. For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,333,851 and 4,844,442 different ninety degree turning belt transport apparatus and methods are disclosed, each including include a stationary cylinder around which a plurality of upper and lower transport belts move to convey documents about the stationary cylinder. The transport belts are trained over a plurality of rollers that are positioned and angled such that the belts turn over the document while conveying the document from an input path to an output path that is ninety degrees from the direction of the input path. One of the disadvantages in such an arrangement is that it would be difficult to add a second input that is in line with the output path. Another disadvantage is that the belts moving around the stationary cylinder typically produce static electricity that can effect the processing of documents passing thereby. Further, the initial set up and maintenance of such devices is cumbersome because of the plurality of belts and the angle of their corresponding rollers that are needed to transport the document around the cylinder. In each case, the belts, or some portion thereof maintain control of the document around the cylinder. However, since the belts are compliant, the documents have a tendency to skew or move such that the center line of the document will not necessarily as needed for further processing. Thus, further alignment apparatus would be necessary downstream of such transports before further processing could continue. U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,435 discloses a sheet inverting device that includes a registration feature but does not change the direction of the sheets.
Right angle transports are also well known. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,180,154, 5,180,159 and 4,527,792 show various apparatus and methods for transporting documents in a right angle change of direction. And, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/173,040, filed Dec. 27, 1993, discloses a right angle transport that further includes means for handling a second in-line input.
The aforementioned apparatus are comprised of several moving parts that must be assembled and maintained. Furthermore, such apparatus are not suitable for being configured for handling multiple documents that are conveyed side by side such as two-up or three-up documents that have been slit from a single sheet.
It is well known to print multiple documents on a large sheet of paper and then separate the large sheet into smaller separate documents which can be merged for further processing. Such a technique is commonly referred to as "slit and merge". Generally, after the slit is made to the large sheet the slit documents must be separated to prevent them from interfering with each other as they are merged. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,165 the slit documents are separated in collector means before further processing. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,375 the slit documents are deposited on a plurality of superimposed guide plates to separate the documents before further processing. Generally, such slit and merge devices perform the slit and merge function is the one direction and do not include the turning over of the documents as part of the merging function.